Technical Field of Invention
The present invention generally relates to a weapon technology and particularly relates to an improvement in a primer used in the gun device. The present invention more particularly relates to a hybrid primer for facilitating an instantaneous ignition of a propellant.
Description of Related Art
A conventional primer in use today, is a small container or wafer of impact sensitive explosive material that is used to ignite the main explosive charge of a firearm or an explosive. A primer is an essential part of a cartridge or an artillery shell that initiates the combustion of the propellant which in turn helps provide enough kinetic energy to the projectile by building up necessary pressure.
The traditional primers rely completely on a mechanical strike by a hammer or firing pin on the percussion cap fixed at the rear end of a cartridge or artillery shell to initiate the combustion of the propellant. This method of triggering the propellant has disadvantages of slow and incomplete combustion of the propellant. The mechanical process of triggering the primer is slow as they have only single triggering point and also due to delay introduced by the movement of hammer and the firing pin. In the existing conventional systems the combustion of the main charge or propellant starts only at rear end; this results in slower rate of combustion since the combustion can be triggered only at one end and has to then progress to the other; thus the resulting pressure build up is also slower. This also results in incomplete combustion since a small percentage of the propellant (in the front) is pushed along with the projectile as it leaves the cartridge. The unburned propellant leaving the cartridge causes muzzle flash. Some of the existing electric primers have design issues as they have only on triggering point or are completely reliant on electricity, are not reusable and also most of them are vulnerable to electro-magnetic interferences. Some of the existing electrical primer designs need highly customized firearms and are not compatible with the existing mechanical firearm systems; this is a major drawback. The design flaws in existing electric primer designs make the cartridges difficult to store, handle and use in firearms, which is the reason why they are not widely used.
One of the prior arts discloses a combination of percussion-electric primer operable in a percussion mode or an electric mode. The percussion-electric primer includes the elements of a primer cup, in which an electrically-conducting contact button is disposed at one end thereof, and a booster charge supporting cup is disposed within the other end of the primer cup. A space between the contact button and supporting cup is adapted to receive a supply of priming composition.
Another prior art discloses a weapon for utilizing a combination percussive and electrically responsive cartridge primer includes an electromechanical firing mechanism that operates to fire rounds percussively and electrically, and an electrical controller for regulating the firing of rounds electrically. A method of firing a combination percussive and electrically responsive cartridge primer includes mechanically firing a first round having the primer, and electrically firing subsequent rounds having the primer. Alternately, the energy generating mechanism may include a thermoelectric generator.
However, the ignition method disclosed in the prior arts is conventional in nature and follows a chain reaction. The conventional designs have just one triggering point. The ignition starts only at one end of the cartridge (near percussion cap) and then progresses to the neck (or projectile end) of the cartridge. A significant amount of unburnt propellant is pushed into the barrel along with the bullet. This results in muzzle flash and residue is left after the bullet leaves the gun barrel. The muzzle flash produced by the residual propellants also exposes the soldiers using the firearm. The chain combustion of the propellant in the prior arts results in inefficiency as the propellant power is not fully utilized to translate into greater kinetic energy, hence limiting range of a projectile. Also rate of combustion is much slower in the prior art primer technology leading to low rate of fire.
In the view of foregoing, there is a need for a primer device that allows instantaneous combustion and hence improves the rate of combustion of propellant by using multiple trigger points. There is a need for a primer that can help achieve complete combustion of the propellant within the firearm which can eliminate the muzzle flash. Also there is a need for a primer device to increase a range and accuracy in hitting a target by increasing the kinetic energy of the projectile. Further there is a need for a primer device to reduce or eliminate the residue propellant left in firearm. Further there is a need for a primer device to increase a firing rate with respect to the conventional used firearms.
The above mentioned shortcomings, disadvantages and problems are addressed herein, as detailed below.